A sweeping, propulsive, darkly humorous new novel by the best-selling author of Snow Falling on Cedars a story of destiny, desire, and destruction that reimagines Sophocless Oedipus Rex for our own era. In Seattle in 1962, Walter Cousins, a mild-mannered actuary—a guy who weighs risk for a living—takes a risk of his own, and makes the biggest error of his life. He sleeps with Diane Burroughs, the sexy, not-quite-legal British au pair whos taking care of his children for the summer. Diane gets pregnant and leaves their baby on a doorstep, but not before turning the tables on Walter and setting in motion a tragedy of epic proportions. Their orphaned child, adopted by an adoring family and named Edward Aaron King, grows up to become a billionaire Internet tycoon and an international celebrity—the King of Search—who unknowingly, but inexorably, hurtles through life toward a fate he may have no power to shape.
